Lotus Flower
by brabbit1029
Summary: Bearing burdens of the past and harboring a special power, Lie Ren enrolls into Beacon Academy two years early where he forms a team with his adopted older sister, an awkward misfit unfit for combat, and a cold, icy heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. AU with Ren as MC. RenxWeiss, possible NoraxJaune
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own RWBY! Also, this fanfic is in honor of Monty Oum, since I love Ren and I feel that he ****doesn't get a lot of screen time.**

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**Chapter 1**

_"If only you weren't born!"_

_"I'll definitely protect you."_

_"Promise?"_

_"If I ever die, would you...?"_

Ren was abruptly awoken as the ship jolted slightly in the air. He had unknowingly fallen asleep in a corner against the wall, waiting for the flying ship to arrive at Beacon Academy, where he would soon be a student. The ship was packed with hundreds of other students that excitedly gathered at the glass windows overlooking the vast city beneath them. The students' excitement had intensified ever since Glynda Goodwitch had given them a speech about Beacon via hologram.

Ren had never been one for crowds. He was uncomfortable around others and preferred quiet, empty places. He was what one would call "socially awkward." Being enrolled into the prestigious Beacon Academy for huntsmen and huntresses two years earlier than normal didn't exactly help him fit in, either.

Which was exactly why he awkwardly hung out in the back of the flying ship. the constant sound of a blonde, motion-sick huntsmen hurling not too far away from Ren kept him awake. He wondered exactly what that guy ate to have barfed up so much.

He eyed the clumps of huntsmen and huntresses excitedly gazing at the vast city below them. Judging by the growing excitement of the students, Ren assumed that they were nearing Beacon Academy.

He let out a long yawn before heaving himself onto his feet as the ship slowly made its way to the ground.

The first one out, unsurprisingly, was vomit boy, who seemed more than relieved to finally be on the ground. He trailed behind the students as they made their way off the ship and began to admire the magnificent building that was to be their new home.

Ren shielded his eyes against the sun as he inclined his head to get a full view of the school.

_"So this is where I'll be staying from now on...?"_

Making friends aside, he had one goal: to fulfill the promise he made to _him._

A bright, warm smile that acted as his primary source of comfort made his way into his mind.

_"I'm going to become a great huntsmen here. I'll make you proud, so just watch me, Fe-"_

"S-sorry!"

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud crash and a thud. He turned his attention to a heap of black and red in the middle of a bunch of silver cases sprawled across the ground. He soon realized that the heap was a girl wearing a red cloak and a black and red dress. She seemed to have fallen and knocked over the cases. Standing above her was a furious girl with long white hair tied up in a side ponytail and awfully pale skin.

Ren narrowed his magenta eyes as a tingling feeling ran up his spine. He could see two bright auras illuminating from the girls, one light blue and one bright red.

These halos of light were what people called Auras, manifestations of the soul. Unlike others, however, Ren could see and sense these auras a _little _better. And with this ability, he could tell that the two girls before him were very strong.

"Sorry?!" The girl fumed, placing a hand haughtily on her hip and waving a finger at the fallen girl. "Do you have any idea of the damage you could've caused?!"

"Uhh..." The red-haired girl picked up one of the cases and hastily handed it over to the white-haired girl. "Oh, gimme that!" The girl snatched the case out of the other's hands and opened it. She took out one of its contents, a glass bottle full of red dust, and waved it in the red-head's face.

"This is dust!" The white-haired girl snapped. "Mined and purified from the Schnee quarry."

"Uhhh..."

_"Is uh all that girl can say?" _Ren wondered as he watched the scene from afar. _"Wait, isn't Schnee that really rich company? Then this girl must be..."_

"What are you? Brain dead?" The girl, who Ren then recognized as Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, slammed the case shut and waved the bottle in front of her, producing a cloud of red dust around them. "Fire! Water! Lightning! Energy!"

The trail of red dust drifted over to where the red-haired girl was sitting.

"Are you even listening to me?!"

"ACHOO!" The red-haired girl sneezed, causing the dust around the two to explode. Ren shielded his face from the debris of the explosion.

The "Ugh! Now look at what you've done!" Weiss shook off the soot that had settled all over her clothes. The glass bottle, which had been dropped during the mishap, rolled coincidentally towards Ren's feet. Heaving a sigh, he picked the bottle up and headed over to the two girls.

"Agh!" Weiss scowled. "Where's that bottle-?!"

Ren silently held the bottle out towards Weiss, who, along with the red-haired girl, had not noticed approaching them.

Weiss narrowed her eyes and snatched the bottle away from Ren. She stomped off while a few men, supposedly her servants, began to collect the cases of dust.

"Sorry!" The red-haired girl called out. "I'll make it up to you!" But Weiss completely ignored her.

"Way to start my first day." The red-haired girl groaned. She then noticed the outstretched hand in front of her and looked up at the young-looking boy that had randomly showed up out of nowhere.

"Oh, um..." She took his hand, and with surprising ease, the boy lifted her onto her feet.

"Th-thanks..." The girl wiped her clothes off before addressing the boy.

"Um, I'm Ruby." Ruby introduced herself. "Ruby Rose. And you?"

"Lie Ren." The boy said quietly.

"Nice to meet you." Ruby attempted a warm and friendly smile, but she wasn't much of a people-person, so it felt forced.

"You..look really young." Ruby noted. "How old are you?"

Ren paused for a moment before replying. "Fifteen."

"Whoa, really?!" Ruby exclaimed. "That's two years younger than all the other freshmen here! You must be really strong!"

"Um..."

"Anyway, I think we have to go listen to the headmaster give a speech to us newbies." Ruby didn't let him reply. "Wanna go together?"

Truthfully, Ren would have preferred going alone, but he wasn't so rude as to turn down such an innocent-looking girl. He shrugged.

"Sure."

And with that, Ren followed Ruby Rose to Beacon Academy, where he would begin his life as a huntsmen.


	2. Chapter 2

Ren had luckily lost Ruby among the crowd of students. He hung around the back of the Main Hall as Professor Ozpin made a grand speech welcoming the students to Beacon Academy. Ruby seemed to be searching for him, but she forgot about the young asian boy as soon as she spotted a tall blonde girl among the crowd. Maybe a friend? Either way, it didn't concern him.

Ozpin's speech soon ended as Ren blissfully continued to enjoy his nap.

Until a thunderous voice yelled in his ears.

"Wakey-wakey!"

Ren was suddenly wide awake as the loud, familiar voice made its way to his ears. The bright orange light that was an aura blinded him before he found a pair of large blue eyes only inches from his own.

"You up?" The girl stood, giving him some space to breathe. "You're so cute when you sleep, did you know that?"

Ren's eyes widened with recognition as the girl beamed down at him. "N-Nora?!"

"Ren!" Nora squealed and tackled the poor boy in a death hug. "It really is you! When I was passing by and saw you, I was all like "Whaaaat? Isn't that Ren?" So, what're you doing here? Did you come to see your big sis? You did, didn't you?! Did ya miss me? I missed you, too!"

Ren gasped for air as his adopted older sister continued to choke him.

"N-Nora..." He stammered.

"Hm?" Nora finally released Ren, allowing him to breathe again.

"So? Whatcha doin here?" Nora asked again.

Ren paused for a moment, finally catching his breath, before replying.

"I'm...a student here..."

"What?!" Nora shrieked in excitement, ultimately drawing attention to the duo. Ren plugged his ears in an attempt to drown out her ranting, but to no avail.

"My little brother is a student here? That's great!" Nora babbled on. "We can fight monsters together, ditch classes, eat pancakes, and-!"

"I get it, so just keep it down." Ren managed to cut in. He eyed the students around them warily before sighing for the umpteenth time that day. He was used to Nora's limitless energy and non stop chattering, but that didn't mean he was absolutely comforted by it. He remembered two years ago when he had first been taken in by Nora's mother, Freyja. It took him a while to warm up to his new sister, especially since her mouth ran a mile a minute.

Seeing his sister wasn't that much of a surprise, to be honest. In about a hundred out of the thousands of letters that she sent back home, she had constantly mentioned how excited she was to enroll into Beacon. Still, she had a knack for popping up out of nowhere, something even he wasn't completely used to.

"Since we have to sleep in the hall today, wanna sleep with me?" Nora offered. "I haven't seen you in a while, so let's talk! Or we can go around putting whip cream on people's hands and tickling their noses!"

"I'll pass." Ren stood up.

"Awww, c'mon, lil bro! Let's have some fun!"

"Nora!"

Ren frowned at the thought of meeting so many new people in just one day. This time, it was the vomit boy from the ship. He was tall, Ren noted, but seemed shaggy and untrained for combat. What was such a guy doing at Beacon?

"Oh~, it's Jaune!" Nora named the blonde boy for Ren. "Look, look, Jaune! Ren's here!"

"Ren?" Ren avoided looking at Jaune directly in the eyes. "That little brother you're always talking about, right?"

"Yup!" Nora grabbed Ren in an adoring headlock, while he struggled, but failed, to escape. "He's gonna be our classmate!"

"What? Didn't you say he was a few years younger than you?"

"Ren is special!" Nora ruffled the top of Ren's long, dark hair. "He's strong!"

"Wow, you don't really look...I mean, not that you're...um..." Jaune sighed. "Nice to meet you, Ren. I'm Jaune."

"Y-you too..." Ren slipped out of Nora's grasp. His sister childishly pouted and lunged for him again, but this time he was prepared. He managed to dodge her outstretched arms.

But Nora quickly recovered. "I can't wait! This is gonna be so much fun! I hope we all end up on the same team! I mean, I dunno if we actually get to choose our teams, but I'll find a way!"

Jaune leaned forward as Nora rambled on. "How did you learn to live with _this?" _He whispered, jutting a thumb out at the bubbly huntress.

Ren sighed. "Patience and pancakes. _Lots _of pancakes."

"Pancakes!" Nora popped up between the two with her arms up in the air. Jaune cried out in shock while Ren simply jumped back.

"Ohhh~! Maybe we can find some!" Nora suggested. "Let's go!"

Before the two boys could protest, she grabbed their hands and dragged them behind her as she began to run who knows where.

"Nora, where are we going?!" Jaune wailed, overwhelmed by Nora's superhuman strength. "S-slow down!"

"Ohhh, maybe they're here?" Nora skidded to a stop peeked under a random sleeping bag. "Or here?" She searched through a random student's backpack, much to their annoyance. "Or here? Or-"

"Hey!"

A haughty voice interrupted Nora's pancake hunt. Towering over then was Weiss Schnee, dressed in a white night gown with her long white hair loosely hanging down her shoulders. She seemed irritated, the only mood that Ren had seen her in since they'd arrived at Beacon.

"Some people are trying to sleep here, you know!" Weiss snapped. Nora stood up and stuck her tongue out goofily. "Oops! Sorry!"

"Why, hello, there!" Jaune leaned forward and gave Weiss the cheesiest grin Ren had ever seen. He slicked his blonde hair back in a lame attempt to seem appealing. "I'm Jaune? What's your name, Snow Angel?"

Weiss scowled and grabbed a pillow lying on the ground. Poor Jaune was rejected with a pillow to the face.

"Hmph!" Weiss turned her nose up in disgust.

"Oh~, pillow fight!" Nora squealed, and before Ren could stop her, she hurled a pillow straight at Weiss.

_"This can't be good."_

Weiss clenched her fists around the pillow. "Why, you little-!"

"Yay! Your turn!" Nora seemed oblivious to the situation. Ren tugged on the sleeve of her shirt.

"Hey, Nora, that's enough." He whispered.

"You wanna play too, Ren?" Nora giggled.

"What's such a carefree miscreant doing here at Beacon Academy anyway?" Weiss demanded. "We're here to fight monsters, not fool around! I bet you can't even fight!"

"I can too!" Nora jutted her chest out proudly and placed her hands on her hips.

"Yeah, right!" Weiss scoffed.

"Look, I said I was sorry." Nora held her hands out innocently. "As soon as I find some pancakes, I'll give you some, kay?"

"I don't want any, you glutton! Now why don't you just pack all your things so that the students who are actually here to fight monsters can work!"

Something in Ren snapped. This girl didn't know a thing about Nora. She didn't know how hard Nora trained. She hadn't witnessed Nora secretly pounding training dummies late at night like Ren did.

He grabbed Nora's wrist and pulled her towards him.

"Ren?"

"Please forgive her. She's just excited to be here." Ren apologized to the moody heiress.

"Aren't you that boy from before?" Weiss recognized him. "You're a friend of that exploding red-haired dweeb, aren't you?"

"Hey!" Apparently, Ruby had been nearby, and she called out in protest to the insult directed at her.

"Not really..." Ren muttered. He then eyed Weiss calmly. "But I'd prefer it if you didn't insult Nora like that."

"What?"

"She's worked just as hard as you to get here, so please don't insult her like that."

Ren immediately realized what he had just said. Weiss, Jaune, and Nora's gazes were all glued onto him: Weiss angry, Jaune in a daze, and Nora surprised. Cringing under all the attention, Ren quickly turned and pulled his sister behind him, hiding his magenta eyes beneath his long bangs.

"C'mon, Nora..." Ren mumbled. He was too busy trying to escape from the scene to notice a bright grin forming on Nora's face.

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In the end they, of course, did not find any pancakes, though it took both Ren and Jaune about two hours to convince Nora that there weren't any. She finally settled down and crashed in a sleeping bag right next to Ren's. She refused to give him any personal space and clung to him tightly, mumbling something about sloths in her sleep and snoring loudly. Embarrassed, Ren tried to hide his slightly red face under Nora's arms, struggling to ignore all the stares.

Leave it to Nora to exhaust him so much in just one day. He was almost too tired to free himself from his sister's arms, but he was also too self-conscious to be publicly seen sleeping with her.

Once he was sure that Nora was asleep, he slowly slipped out of her arms. She held onto him strongly, snorting and strengthening her grip on Ren. He winced and tried to get up one more time. This time, to his relief, her arms slipped from his neck and fell to the ground. With another snort, she rolled over onto her side.

Ren stood up and brushed off his green shirt and black sweatpants. He was about to leave when he felt a light tug on his pants preventing him from moving. Looking down, he found his sister's hand tightly grabbing the leg of his pants.

He faltered as he gazed at the peaceful, snoring face of Nora. For some reason, he was reminded of the first time Nora snuck into his bed when he had been adopted.

_(Flashback)_

_Ren had been lying, back down, on his new bed in his new home belonging to his new family. Staring absentmindedly at the ceiling, he had been questioning whether or not he should stay there._

_He didn't need these people. They weren't his real family. It would probably feel awkward having to live with a bunch of strangers._

_"Why am I even here?" Ren heaved a sigh and covered his eyes with the back of his hand. "I have to-"_

_"Ren~!"_

_He abruptly opened his eyes to find an outstretched body falling on top of him. The air was squeezed out of him as Nora landed on the bed with a bubbly laugh._

_"Let's sleep together, Ren!" Nora got up on her hands and knees so that she hovered over her new brother._

_"I-I'll pass..." Ren mumbled._

_"Aw, don't be shy!" Nora teased and rolled over so that she was lying beside Ren. "I mean, I understand, since you're living in a new home and all! But don't worry! Well, of course, you're a guy, and I'm a girl, so it might seem kinda weird to sleep together, but we're siblings now! I mean, not siblings-siblings, but still siblings!"_

_"Um..."_

_That was one of the first of many times Ren was unable to win an argument against Nora, and he found himself wide awake in the middle of the night with the hyperactive girl clinging to him as if he were some stuffed toy._

_Was this something he was going to have to deal with for the rest of his life?_

_He shifted under Nora's grip and attempted to escape without waking her up, but her hand only held onto him tighter._

_Nora let out a small laugh and snuggled closer to Ren. "Hehehe...brother..."_

_Ren gritted his teeth. For some reason, the content look on Nora's sleeping face broke his determination. _

_"Mom..."_

_All of a sudden, her face was twisted with pain, and Ren could feel her shaking against him. _

_He eyed her warily. What was he supposed to do?_

_Hastily, he reached out and rested a hand on Nora's head._

_"Um..."_

_As soon as Ren's hand came in contact with Nora, a smile once again formed on her face. _

_Ren blinked for a few moments before falling back onto his pillow, confused by his odd "sister." _

_All of a sudden, Ren felt oddly comfortable, and he soon found himself drifting off to sleep with Nora's snoring head resting on his shoulder._

_(End of flashback)_

Nora's mother had found them the next morning, much to Ren's embarrassment. It had taken him a lot of convincing to get Freyja to understand that nothing "dirty" was going on between the two.

Ever since he'd known Nora, she had constantly crashed on his own bed despite his protests. Sleeping with him seemed to vanquish her nightmares. Ren had even discovered that Nora prevented him from having his own bad dreams. He recalled constantly worrying about her at night ever since she left, wondering if she was in the middle of another nightmare.

Ren rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and found himself lying back down next to Nora, whose smile widened as if she knew that her brother had returned.

Once again, Nora had won him over.

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